Chairmon Byron Cook behaves like a Rethug; House panel quickly OKs 3 abortion bills

[TexasTowelie]

The House State Affairs Committee, with no discussion, approved three abortion-related bills with party-line votes, restoring the ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy that had been stripped out of Senate Bill 5.

The committee also approved two bills that had been the subject of more than 10 hours of testimony, and one loud protest that led to a brief recess so order could be restored, in a hearing that had ended at 3:40 a.m. Friday.

Friday afternoon’s specially called meeting lasted about 15 minutes. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, asked Cook if he would accept amendments in committee. Cook said he preferred to handle amendments on the House floor, where debate is likely to begin Sunday.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/emotional-10-hour-abortion-hearing-ends-without-a-/nYRGB/



[font color=green]I would get into serious legal problems if I posted what I'm thinking right now. The people of Texas need to bombard their representatives with phone calls and not let them have a moment of peace until this legislation is defeated.[/font]

[blogslut]

1. I figured they'd pull a vindictive stunt like that

The omnibus bill was vindictive. The entire GOP is is vindictive.

The truth of the matter is that the only dependable voting block/donation source they have are backwards-thinking haters and ultra-rich social engineers. The GOP is never going to do the hard work of re-building their base to fit the times. They're going to go for the sure money and votes. We have to overwhelm them with donation and votes to Democratic candidates. It's the only way. We have to wake up the people in historically red districts and make them see that the Republican party is detrimental to their welfare and the future of Texas.

[mbperrin]

2. Well, seeing as how the Lege is all up in ... a woman's uterus..., I mean in arms,

why not go all the way with this sanctity of life thing?

Seems to me that looking at only fertilized eggs is a limited view of the whole thing.

So I propose a bill that would require all men capable of ejaculation in Texas to either ensure that every sperm has fertilized an egg, OR that any non-joined sperm be preserved cryonically until such time as it will have its turn to do its duty to churn out zygotes.

Documents will have to kept, and if any are spilled beyond recovery, a Form SS-1 (Spilled Sperm #1 Report), must be filled out within 24 hours by any ejaculated male to describe the circumstances regarding the non-recovery of the sperm, how many sperm were estimated to be in the non-recovered group, and what is the general motility of the recovered sperm so that we can see if they were worth crying over.

If the recovered sperm from the same sample show a superior motility rate, the offender must pay a fine for EACH lost sperm, not to exceed $10,000 each, not a total of more than $50 million per incident. This should make men more careful,

BUT if a second spill and non-recovery occurs, the offender will be deemed in contempt of the statute, and must file a Form SS-2 within 24 hours of the spill. The penalty at this point becomes total removal of all body portions which help to create sperm, since these scofflaws have proven they cannot be trusted with precious, precious, potential life!

Some tweaking could be needed, but I think that's pretty much it, in a, uh, nutshell.

[TexasTowelie]

3. The lovely thing about that plan

is that the courts have already ruled that if one of those sperms accidently results in the fertilization of a women, then he is responsible for child support--even if the pregnancy occurred as the result of a cleaning woman encountering said sperm while .cleaning a floor on her hands and knees. After all, she should have purchased the absorbent towels use for oil spills.

[LeftInTX]

7. Or maybe we could rig Republican men's bodies so that they can get pregnant

No uterus, no problem. Just let that fetus grow in those sperm tubes. Have fun with that!!! No abortion for you!!!!

[Melissa G]

4. Was there until a little before 3am Friday morning;

stayed for the impromptu press conference. I left after it was clear Cook was not going to let me testify and a heck of a lot more people who were waiting since around 1 in the afternoon. They told us we had to re register to testify sometime after midnight and then blocked us out of re registering. It was a sham of a hearing.

Call your rep! Have all your friends and relatives call! Defeat the bills!

[TexasTowelie]

5. I mentioned the story to a few women today that had not heard anything about these bill.

Needless to say, the women that I spoke to reacted very negatively when I told them this information.

From what I read at the beginning of the day, I expected the hearing that was held this afternoon to be a sham--I gained that knowledge in my 13 years of working for the state. Regrettably, my expectations were confirmed later today.

I plan on contacting Rep. Lois Kolkhorst's office to register my opposition to the bills, but I also doubt that it will have any effect since she has been kissing Perry's ass for the duration of this legislative session. Unfortunately, I don't have much ability to impact the situation other than the reports that I've posted on DU and a couple of other newspapers in the state (you would be surprised how many liberals are in the Lubbock area).

Thank you for attending the hearing last night/this morning and if I should somehow be able to show up in Austin, then I'll be there for support. The representative also need to see men protesting these bills. I have one friend from college that impregnated a woman while he was a college student. Although he turned out to be a Republican, I believe that even he realizes how his life would have changed if he was forced to provide for a child from an accidental pregnancy that neither parent wanted. The couple were too immature to raise a child and while I don't recommend abortion as the choice for birth control, I also realize that the choice to terminate a pregnancy belongs to the woman and hopefully involves the man so he can provide love and support .

[Melissa G]

6. Let us know if you are coming to Austin and some

Local DUers might create a meet up. I think some of us are getting together in the near future. PM me if you decide to come down.

Thanks for contacting your rep and asking others to contact their legislative reps.

[hobbit709]

8. Well color me surprised-NOT!!

This was a foregone conclusion as soon as our worthless governor added it to the special session.

[northoftheborder]

9. Thanks for posting this. My state rep was overwhelmingly elected last year (totally red, uncaring...

...huge no. rel. fundies in this district.) Depressing.

[TexasTowelie]

10. You are welcome.

I had a feeling that something like this was going to occur. The Republican ideology supersedes pragmatism and respect for women. Some of the women that I spoke with yesterday said that they would never consider abortion themselves, but they wouldn't want their beliefs to impose on the choices that other women may face.